In the past, the most common way for detecting chemical agents and pollutants has been the wet chemistry method. In the laboratory, spectrometers which measure the optical spectrum have been used to provide sensitive and positive identification of compounds. Until recently, identification of the compounds has been done by a skilled worker comparing the spectra produced to a reference spectra. In the real world, this problem is complicated by the presence by many intermingled spectra. More recently, digital computers have proven useful in making some identifications and comparison of the spectra and thereby enabling the determination of what species are present in a sample. Therefore, it can be seen that there is a need for a way to more accurately and positively identify chemical compounds other than by the ways that have been accomplished in the past.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method by which the light spectra from a spectrometer can be used in a correlator that has a Fourier Transform matched filter therein to positively identify if a particular spectra of a chemical compound is present.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method which utilizes the benefits of a spectrometer with a simple compact correlator as is available today to detect the presence of specific chemical species.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a means for detecting the presence of a specific chemical compound even though the spectra of the compound produced by the spectrometer may not be a recognizable spectra if inspected by a human.
Still a further object of this invention is to provide a method by which the correlator used will tolerate poor calibration of the spectrometer.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be obvious to those skilled in this art.